$31 Millions Stolen In A Tether Attack - The Blockchain "Temporarily Hardforks" To Lock The Funds
If you ever want to launch your own token, whatever you do, don't put in its name "ETH"! Just don't do it.
Because it seems like tokens with these 3 letters in it are very often hacked. It happened to Ethereum a few times, not it's Tether which reports a strange activity, which resulted in the removal of $31 millions equivalent of funds from its Treasury.
The hack was discovered yesterday, after what analysts called "strange developments" resulting in the issuance of more than $50 millions tokens in the first week of November alone. According to the same source cited above:
A huge uptick in the number of tokens being released – 50 million in the first week of November alone – is now considered the cause of recent increases in Bitcoin (BTC) prices, which now stand at over $8000.
I've never been attracted to this token, because I find the rationale behind it skewed: why would anyone want to peg their entire coinbase to fiat? It's pretty much nonsensical, at least in my tiny little world.
But anyway, if you had or planned to have Tether, it's worth keeping an eye on the developments of this situation.
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Yes, an extra $50 million in tokens is responsible for Bitcoin rising more than $1000 above its previous highs and creating at least $10 billion in New wealth.
With such obvious and easy returns, you think my bank will lend me $50 million to speculate on Bitcoin? Banks create new tokens, too, every time they issue a loan.
for 50 millions one was able to buy ~7000 bitcoins, this is a joke :) I think this is some kind of SMM
That is one hell of a hack.. Jesus
ETHbLazing
All right let me pose this scenario. A insider of tether goes to what is their "hot" wallet extracts 50 million tokens and goes out starts buying bitcoin with them. Once the tokens are used up he goes and puts out the story that the tokens were stolen and used for wrong doing. blah blah blah. This can not last forever. The growth of crypto has drawbacks and this is one of them. Fake value of a token created out of thin air.
That's scary. Because it's plausible.
To an extent, the value of cryptocurrencies is made out of thin air, too.
The point I am making here is tether has no proof that the coin is backed by real cash or anything for that matter. Other cryptos that are not scams have a ton of human interactions and equipment infrastructure in place. Coins like ETH, bitcoin, LTC, DASH and so on have systems in place to control the creation of those specific coins. On the other hand no one knows exact numbers of tether there are currently and how many will ever exist. Is that not making up a coin out of thin air?
So you think Tether is scammy?
Until I see proof that there is some sort of backing to it, yes it is a scam. Not saying that people can not profit from a scam.
Well it is pretty scammy=
https://medium.com/@bitfinexed/the-bitfinex-dilemma-blow-up-now-or-try-a-hail-mary-to-retain-in-business-10b9d989359f
https://news.bitcoin.com/tether-coin-may-be-a-precarious-us-dollar-peg/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/6ypy58/the_truth_about_bitfinex_and_tether/?st=ja8tocvj&sh=0b0ee2e1
Also decentralized peg to usd are possible=
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@sames/decentralized-alternatives-to-tether
Also unlike tether which promises value bitcoin does not say it will be worth anything. Really saying a coin will always be a $1 is not trustworthy.
I also think this is an inside planned move. It is too . But it's just an opinion, and I don't want to defend it, maybe I'm wrong :)
Big amount stolen, it's big alert news
If you ignore Zimbabwe and other world issues.
Yeah, thanks for mentioning this issue (again). I think we should be more careful to the link between Bitcoin price and political and social instability.
I remember at least once Venezuela was credit with something similar a few months ago. For something similar in structure - political and social unrest - but not in form, there was no coup in Venezuela, AFAIK.
No coup in Venezuela, Maduro had the constitution rewritten to give himself more power, basically a full dictator now. He feeds the military to keep the people in check and doesn't give them access to guns. I'm not sure how having crypto helps them if they can't get anything into the country. There is nothing to buy in the country, so more money for purchasing local goods doesn't help.
Since Zimbabwe crypto market has BitCoin at a 20% premium, I'm betting that has more effect than the hack. North Korea and other issues, especially with the Saudi prince cleansing, is definitely giving a feel of uncertainty in the middle-east and Asia, where cryptos are used more.
Top-level members of Maduro's government (including Maduro himself, the vice president and military leadership) have been sanctioned by Trump's administration, prohibiting american companies and citizens doing business with them, and their USD bank accounts were frozen. They were included in the Treasury Dept OFAC list.
A possibility is that they have acquired bitcoins or other crypto to overcome these sanctions.
The article I saw was pointing to the people of Venezuela using Bitcoin to get past the issue that they are having 1000% inflation of their currency.
I have no doubt that leaders in Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea have been mining and using Bitcoin to get around sanctions. It's probably common knowledge within the intelligence community.
Oh, sure. For that people it's has been a way to deal with that huge inflation, and to earn some "hard currency" (sounds a little bit ironic to call cryptocurrencies in that way hehe).
Certainly, there is nothing to buy in the country, unless you have USD. That's the magic.
@miti downvote
How does one hack a token? Weren't they supposed to be safe, and the exchanges maybe at risk?
Also, didn't BTC grow it's market cap by billions, making this hack just a spec?
Ugh... this post made me a bit afraid. If Eth and tether isn't safe... Bitcoin might be next (but the wierd thing is that all these coins are unhackable with the current technology as far as I know.)
The (fake?) feel of security and avoiding the "did it increase/decrease?" drama.
When you're certain the the coin you're hodling value will be decreased for a long time.. you have two options... convert it to another coin
Why would anyone use SBD rather than STEEM?... I think it's because of the security feel that your coin value will always be the same. yeah it won't go up... But it won't go down either.
Many people use these coins as currencies not store of value.
@dragosroua I pretty sure tether was used by only traders to get a $1 value while trading or an alternative to usd trading pairs. However usd pegs can be decentralized. https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@sames/decentralized-alternatives-to-tether
It not the best system but more trustworthy